In the 1930s and 1940s, political repression was practiced by the Soviet secret police services Cheka, OGPU and NKVD.[9] An extensive network of civilian informants – either volunteers, or those forcibly recruited – was used to collect intelligence for the government and report cases of suspected dissent.[10]

Every large enterprise and institution of the Soviet Union had a First Department that reported to the KGB; the First Department was responsible for secrecy and political security in the workplace.[citation needed]

According to the Soviet Criminal Code, agitation or propaganda carried on for the purpose of weakening Soviet authority, or circulating materials or literature that defamed the Soviet State and social system were punishable by imprisonment for a term of 2–5 years; for a second offense, punishable for a term of 3–10 years.[12]

Historian Robert Conquest described the Soviet electoral system as "a set of phantom institutions and arrangements which put a human face on the hideous realities: a model constitution adopted in a worst period of terror and guaranteeing human rights, elections in which there was only one candidate, and in which 99 percent voted; a parliament at which no hand was ever raised in opposition or abstention."[14]

Personal property was allowed, with certain limitations. Real property mostly belonged to the State.[15] Health, housing, education, and nutrition were guaranteed through the provision of full employment and economic welfare structures implemented in the workplace.[15]

The Soviet Union promoted atheism. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most organized religions were never outlawed outright.

Practicing Orthodox Christians were restricted from prominent careers and membership in communist organizations (e.g. the party and the Komsomol). Anti-religious propaganda was openly sponsored and encouraged by the government, to which the Church was not given an opportunity to publicly respond. Seminaries were closed down, and the church was restricted from publishing materials. Atheism was propagated through schools, communist organizations, and the media. Organizations such as the Society of the Godless were created.

Emigration and any travel abroad were not allowed without an explicit permission from the government. People who were not allowed to leave the country and campaigned for their right to leave in the 1970s were known as "refuseniks". According to the Soviet Criminal Code, a refusal to return from abroad was treason, punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10–15 years, or death with confiscation of property.[12]

Human rights activists in the Soviet Union were regularly subjected to harassment, repressions and arrests. In several cases, only the public profile of individual human rights campaigners such as Andrei Sakharov helped prevent a complete shutdown of the movement's activities.

Nevertheless, a more organized human rights movement grew out of the current of dissent known as "defenders of rights" (pravozashchitniki) of the late 1960s and 1970s.[28] One of its most important samizdat publications, the Chronicle of Current Events, began circulation in 1968, after the United Nations declared the year as the International Year for Human Rights. The following years saw the emergence of several dedicated human rights groups:

In May 1969, the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR was founded by Soviet dissidents to unify existing human rights circles. The organization petitioned to the UN Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the victims of Soviet repression. It was dissolved after the arrest and trial of its leading member Peter Yakir.

In November 1970, the Committee on Human Rights in the USSR was founded by Andrei Sakharov and other dissidents to publicize Soviet violations of human rights. They wrote appeals, collected signatures for petitions, and attended trials. Sakharov's reputation allowed the Committee to survive, and it succeeded in affiliating with several international human rights organizations.

In October 1973, the USSR's section of Amnesty International was founded by 11 Moscow intellectuals and was registered in September 1974 by the Amnesty International Secretariat in London.

The eight member countries of the Warsaw Pact signed the Helsinki Final Act in August 1975. Although the Soviet government had tried hard to prevent the inclusion of human rights in the act, it ultimately accepted a text containing unprecedented commitments that the protection of human rights was a legitimate part of diplomatic relations among the thirty-five states participating in the CSCE.[29]:117 As word on the contents of the Helsinki Final Acts spread through Western broadcasts by the BBC and Radio Liberty, dissidents across the Soviet bloc began to organize independent initiatives to monitor their governments' compliance with the new Helsinki norms, specifically the "third basket" of the Final Act.[29]:99–100 In the years 1976-77, several "Helsinki Watch Groups" were formed in different cities to monitor the Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Final Act. They succeeded in unifying different branches of the human rights movement:[29]:159–166

^Lambelet, Doriane. "The Contradiction Between Soviet and American Human Rights Doctrine: Reconciliation Through Perestroika and Pragmatism." 7 Boston University International Law Journal. 1989. p. 61-62.